The Great Escape - Fiona Gibson > Reviews (2)

So far now I have read three books by this author and have enjoyed every single one of them. I only really came across the author because the title of one of her books made me smile and after I read that I knew I would enjoy her other books because of her style of writing. This book is one I took on my most recent holiday as I wanted something for the plane journey that I knew I would enjoy.

The author:

Fiona has written for many publications including Marie Claire and The Guardian and for several years she also wrote a weekly column for The Sunday Herald newspaper. She lives in Scotland with her husband and children and has written six fiction books so far including this one.

The plot:

Hannah is marrying Ryan who she loves very much and everything should be great but, his children are not making things easy and as the wedding draws nearer, she realises a way to make her feel better would be to have a girlie weekend with her two closest friends Sadie and Lou. However, little does she know that the other two also have their own problems and will relish a weekend away. Soon enough, they are on their way to Glasgow, home to where all of them went to University and where they have so many memories – can the weekend away bring back a piece of each of them from their younger selves?

Characters:

I really liked all the main three women in this book as they are all nice people, normal people. Hannah is who the story is mainly focused on it is her story that prompts the getaway for them all. She comes across as such a nice person and somebody who has tried her best to be good to Ryan’s children, yet they make it difficult and I really felt for her. I liked how she didn’t want to make it out to him that they were making her feel so bad and instead try to just keep things going.

Sadie I felt bad for because I don’t think her husband realised how hard it was for her looking after twins on her own all day and especially when all the perfect mothers made it seem so easy and that just made her feel worse. She again came across as a normal person who was trying to do the best and that made me like her a lot.

Lou is probably the one I felt most sorry for as she is with somebody who treats her like dirt and whilst she struggles to make sure she has money for the bills, her boyfriend simply sits around all day. It was even more dis-heartening to think that she had once been so successful with her own jewellery and yet now she has a job she hates and sees no way out of the rut. It made me feel like she was a real person as so many struggle everyday just like Lou.

Price:

I bought my book in Tesco as part of the two books for £7 offer making the book just £3.50 which to me is really good value for a brand new book. You can still get this in there along with various other shops and online stores.

Overall opinion:

I really enjoyed this book for various reasons really. I would say that mainly it was due to all the three women being people that you can imagine knowing and getting along with and overall coming across as very normal each with their own worries and concerns.

It made the story more realistic and because of that it was also easy to relate to their individual stories.

I also liked the concept of the book that rather than it just being one person it was about, we got to hear the sides from the other women too. It made it more interesting because there were three separate stories going on and where each friend thought the other two had good lives or imagined a way of life they lived, it wasn’t always the case and it made me think how you never know what goes on behind closed doors!

Overall this was a great little book and the perfect book to pass most of the time on the plane journey and then on the beach. I would definitely recommend it and if you’ve not read any of this author’s other books, this would be a nice one to start with.